Exposure to UV radiation causes harmful effects in a wide variety of things, both living and non-living. For example, exposure of human skin to UV radiation can cause sever sunburn and skin cancer and exposure of beneficial microorganisms to UV radiation can kill them. UV radiation can also cause materials to degrade prematurely and thus suffer mechanical failure or otherwise become unable to serve their intended purpose.
The harmful effects of UV radiation can generally be prevented to lessened through the simple step of absorbing all or a portion of UV radiation before it reaches the thing it may harm. For, example, chemicals in sunscreen absorb a portion of the UV radiation that would normally reach the skin and, as a result, help protect the skin from sunburn and skin cancer.
Although numerous substances able to absorb UV radiation are known, not all of them are suitable for all possible uses. Further, some substances may be expensive to produce or may have harmful side effects, such as toxicity or undesired chemical reactions with a protected material. Other substances simply do not last long enough in the environment in which they are used or last too long.
Accordingly, there is a demand for new substances able to absorb UV radiation, particularly if those substances are biocompatible.